Joe Manganiello is clearing the air about why he and ex-wife Sofía Vergara parted ways. Earlier this year, Vergara, 52, told Spanish newspaper El País that their marriage ended because her younger husband wanted kids, but she didn't want to be an older mom. (Vergara has a 32-year-old son, Manolo, with former spouse Joe Gonzalez.)
Now, Manganiello, 47, is refuting her statements in a recent Men's Journal interview, labeling them as “simply not true.”
“There's been a lot said in the press about me wanting a family,” Manganiello stated in the Tuesday, July 16, interview when asked what advice he'd give his pre-fame self about Hollywood's peculiar ways.
“We did try to have a family for the first year and a half,” Manganiello revealed. “And we had a huge conversation right out of the gate during the first month we dated. I said, ‘If you're done with kids, then I understand. Just tell me, and I'll know what this is, and that's OK.' But that wasn't the case with her. And I swore to her that I would never leave if it didn't work out. And I didn't.”
Manganiello acknowledged his desire for children but insisted that “wasn't inevitably why everything ended. It's because two people grew apart, and sometimes that happens.”
He added, “To be painted as if I had some sort of midlife crisis, and after nine years, turned to somebody and gave them an ultimatum of, ‘Do this potentially unhealthy thing to your body, or else I'm gone? That's never who I was.”
Manganiello filed for divorce from Vergara in July 2023 after seven years of marriage. Just before the filing, the couple released a joint statement saying, “We've made the difficult decision to divorce. As two people who love and care for one another very much, we politely ask for respect of our privacy at this time as we navigate this new phase of our lives.”
At the time, an insider exclusively told Us that the former pair weren't “on the same page” about their relationship. “She would rather go out with friends and he would rather stay home, so they wouldn't spend a lot of time together,” the source said. “They've been living separate lives for about a year now, so it was time to call things off.”
A few months later, Manganiello and Vergara finalized their divorce. According to court documents obtained by Us in April, a judge approved the proceedings.
Since their breakup, Manganiello has been romantically linked to Caitlin O'Connor. Meanwhile, Vergara made her relationship with Dr. Justin Saliman Instagram official in April.
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